A Delhi court has ordered the framing of sexual harassment charges against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Singh.
The charges were filed by six female wrestlers. Vinod Tomar, former WFI assistant secretary and the second accused in the case, will face charges of criminal intimidation in relation to the allegations of one victim. However, Tomar has been discharged for the allegations of abetment, as reported by Bar and Bench.
The court had previously deferred the framing of charges against Bhushan because his advocate Rajeev Mohan claimed that Bhushan was not in Delhi when one of the six wrestlers was allegedly molested.
In June last year, the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against Bhushan for alleged sexual harassment, assault, and stalking of six women wrestlers.
The chargesheet, which is 1,500 pages long, includes statements from at least 22 witnesses from across four states, including wrestlers, a referee, a coach, and a physiotherapist. They have corroborated the allegations made by the six women wrestlers against Singh.
The chargesheet was filed against Bhushan and Tomar under sections 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking), 109 (abetment), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
Around 220 WFI staffers, wrestlers, referees, and coaches, along with Singh and his associates, were examined in the case.
Previously, the police had filed a 550-page report in the Patiala House Courts seeking the cancellation of the POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences) Act case against Singh. This came after a wrestler, who was a minor at the time of the alleged incident, and her father, the complainant, withdrew their allegations against Singh in a fresh statement before a magistrate. The wrestler had given two statements, one to the police and one to a magistrate, against the WFI chief.
Additional Sessions Judge Chhavi Kapoor had reserved October 6 as the date for deciding on the POCSO cancellation report, but the decision is still pending. Recently, Kapoor deferred the decision to April 23.
